Saskatoon Star Phoenix
November 7, 1964. p.3
By Florence Pratt, StarPhoenix Reporter
Scientists from far places are beating a path to the University of Saskatchewan for a look at the institution's "better mouse trap" - a linear electron accelerator laboratory for advanced nuclear research opened officially today.
"It is an investment in Canada's future. To progress, Canada must have the knowledge to be gained from this laboratory," says its director, Dr. Leon Katz.
In the past, he noted, Canada has been largely an exporter of raw materials. Even to hold its place in today's highly competitive markets, let alone advance in them, the country must not only be prepared to manufacture and sell the finished product, but must make it better than that of other countries, he said.
To do this, even to make so simple a thing as a mouse-trap, under existing conditions, "a very, very sophisticated technology will be required." Research now possible because of the new accelerator will make an eventual contribution toward solution of many problems in industry and science, Dr. Katz said.
In any case, by building the new accelerator laboratory the university had already, in effect, "built a better mouse-trap." The world, in the persons of one hundred or more leading scientists, is making a path to its door today, he said.
Located at the north end of the Saskatoon campus, the new laboratory is the only one of its type in Canada and the largest in the world, Dr. Katz said.
The laboratory and the accelerator it houses is one more step in the field of nuclear studies begun here in 1948 when U of S scientists pioneered construction of Canada's first betatron and cobalt-60 unit.
The betatron was built in 1948 and the cobalt-60 unit, the worlds first non-commercial cobalt-60 therapy unit, in 1951. Both have been used for research and treatment of cancer and for other scientific studies.
With the betatron, research was done on deep-seated cancer, nuclear physics, radiation chemistry, cancer treatment and radiation biology. The cobalt-60 unit made possible research in radiological physics; radiation chemistry; and effects of high radiation on animals and plants.
Now, with the accelerator in the new laboratory, further scientific knowledge of the atom and radiation will be learned through programs which will include experiments in radiation chemistry; biophysics; radiation physics; elastic and inelastic electron scatter; investigations involving monochromatic photon beams for study of photoneutron reactions and neutron time-of-flight experiments.
"Value of the experiments lies in the new knowledge which will be added to that already gained and the possibility of adapting it to medical and industrial uses . If Canada is to progress, we must have this knowledge," says Dr. Katz.
Practical results of the research may not appear for some time. The accelerator was designed primarily as an instrument for scientific research into the structure of the atom, by-products such as energy which may be developed and radiation effects. For a few years at least, the accelerator here will be the most powerful of its type in the world.
The laboratory has been compared with the iceberg. Only the crown is above the surface. The main part, which houses the accelerator, has been placed 20 feet underground, with considerable earth shielding, including 10 feet of compacted gravel, on all sides as precaution against radiation hazards.
The purpose of an accelerator is to produce intense beams of high-energy electrons. An electron is the most elementary charge of negative electricity. It possesses a wave motion which seems to depend on its velocity. Electrons are a part of all atoms and make rays which are emitted by hot bodies.
